RE: Consensus20 Mar 2014 16:34
Goldcoaster, you appear to know an awful lot about a company you obviously have no high regard for.
Which begs the question: Why your continued interest (via this forum and, no doubt, elsewhere) in Hargreaves, who you seemingly appear to have written off as having no dynamism, no balls – and no future?
If that’s what you truly believe, then why expend time and effort on here just to ‘diss’ the present and try to big-up the past – particularly the old founder and his fd sidekick? Old scores to settle maybe? Or long-gone and missed opportunities on your part?
The other day, another poster (SmallCap1) summed up a lot of what makes Hargreaves continue to attract investor support – so I won’t repeat his points unnecessarily here: they are self-evident.
If I were of a cynical disposition (and believe me I am) I would almost think that your carping about the brilliance of the Hargreaves ‘old guard’ compared to your assertion about the current team lacking bottle/direction is an attempt by you to somehow turn back time. Revisit the ‘good old days’ maybe? Perhaps they were even YOUR ‘good old days’? Perhaps you might enlighten the rest of us...
I imagine most of us, who judge - and then invest - according to what we see before us, will continue to do just that, irrespective of your jaundiced opinions: in today’s climate, any company that continues to evolve; continues to respond to changing markets; continues to demonstrate that it DOES have balls – will continue to attract support, from institutional investors right down to us little guys.
The days of the dinosaurs are past (the various Scottish concerns, the esteemed Mr Budge et al). Like the dinosaurs they went because they failed to adapt. (Or worse, they didn’t realise they needed to).
After the MBO, Hargreaves became a very different animal – a modern plc. If the ‘founder’ and his FD of whom you speak so highly had still been in charge where would Hargreaves be now? Running trucks I would imagine.....but then of course you know that the ‘new’ Hargreaves does that as well – and profitably as it happens.